cent plan was at first but partially disclosed to the
public. A colony was to be planted; a vast trade was to be opened
between both the Indies and Scotland; but the name of Darien was as yet
pronounced only in whispers by Paterson and by his most confidential
friends. He had however shown enough to excite boundless hopes and
desires. How well he succeeded in inspiring others with his own feelings
is sufficiently proved by the memorable Act to which the Lord High
Commissioner gave the Royal sanction on the 26th of June 1695. By this
Act some persons who were named, and such other persons as should join
with them, were formed into a corporation, which was to be named the
Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies. The amount of the
capital to be employed was not fixed by law; but it was provided that
one half of the stock at least must be held by Scotchmen resident
in Scotland, and that no stock which had been originally held by a
Scotchman resident in Scotland should ever be transferred to any but
a Scotchman resident in Scotland. An entire monopoly of the trade with
Asia, Africa and America, for a term of thirty-one years, was granted
to the Company. All goods imported by the Company were during twenty-one
years to be duty free, with the exception of foreign sugar and tobacco.
Sugar and tobacco grown on the Company's own plantations were exempted
from all taxation. Every member and every servant of the Company was to
be privileged against impressment and arrest. If any of these privileged
persons was impressed or arrested, the Company was authorised to release
him, and to demand the assistance both of the civil and of the military
power. The Company was authorised to take possession of unoccupied
territories in any part of Asia, Africa or America, and there to plant
colonies, to build towns and forts, to impose taxes, and to provide
magazines, arms and ammunition, to raise troops, to wage war, to
conclude treaties; and the King was made to promise that, if any foreign
state should injure the Company, he would interpose, and would, at the
public charge, obtain reparation. Lastly it was provided that, in order
to give greater security and solemnity to this most exorbitant grant,
the whole substance of the Act should be set forth in Letters Patent to
which the Chancellor was directed to put the Great Seal without delay.

The letters were drawn; the Great Seal was affixed; the subscription
books were opened; the s